Shadow-box

Antonia Logue’s riveting first novel weaves together the lives of three extraordinary characters from the early half of the twentieth century: Jack Johnson, who became the first black Heavyweight Champion of the World; Arthur Cravan, semi-professional boxer, art critic, and nephew of Oscar Wilde; and the beautiful Modernist poet Mina Loy, Cravan’s wife and the third figure in this charismatic triangle. What unfolds is a compulsively readable tale of ambition and betrayal, hatred and injustice, vanity and triumph, ranging across the United States and Europe – from the salons of Paris and a bull-fight arena in Spain to elegant Manhattan and Sing-Sing Prison – during the heady period between the two World Wars. Daring, forceful, passionate, and sharply observed, Shadow-Box is a brilliant melding of history and imagination.